Huh? What About This Way?

The other day my son went grocery shopping with me which is a huge help for me. He watches his little sister, he is a great gopher and an excellent cart returner. As we finished our grocery shopping adventure I sent him on a task to return the cart, I gave him distinct directions on how to get the cart back to the cart return place, however, in the infinite wisdom of a 11-year-old he thought he could do it his way. What was amusing to me was how my son got the cart stuck between our truck and another vehicle.

“Mom, I can’t get the cart over there. What now?” he asked. “I don’t know, Dear. If you had followed my instructions the first time you would not have found yourself stuck, now would you?” I replied. ,

How many of you have been given very precise directions from God only to think your way will work just fine and then find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place?

I know I have done this on many occasions, and I am certain God gets a little exasperated at me just like I get with my son, the only difference is His voice isn’t as shrieking as mine can be. As we were leaving the parking lot I told him it wouldn’t matter if there was a mile between our car and the next, if I told him to go around and not through there was probably a good reason and he just couldn’t see it.

As those words of wisdom left my lips God tapped me on the shoulder and told me that many times when He has been specific about how I should or should not do something it is because He can see things that I cannot, and He knows what is best.

So from this life lesson as a parent, I hope I can listen to God when he is being a parent. I would prefer to do things the easy way, than my way.

haha, I have this problem with my husband 😉 “There was a reason why I asked you to do that before this…”
What a great analogy and comparison to our relationships with God. It’s so true. If we would’ve just listened the first time…

GREAT post and great point! Alpha Hubby and I were just talking about how many times we thought our way was OK – ’cause we didn’t check in with God. We got tired of repenting, going back and taking the right road so are trying to be more sensitive to obeying Him the FIRST time, not second!!

Problem is in the hearing. And too often people let circumstances dictate what they should do as in, “because this situation just got hard it must be God’s will for me to do something else.” (Some even use this to excuse divorce even though God’s Word is pretty specific about his will concerning divorce).

The longer we walk with God we are supposed to be developing maturity so that we don’t look to, or even need, specific signals in order to know what God’s will is. I can look back in my life and see times where I was looking too much to circumstances or was looking for a sign, when God wants us to grow up and start making decisions.

To relate it to the story of your son…when he is older you won’t need to tell him how to put the cart away. He won’t need you to make a decision about whether he should do his schoolwork or play video games because you’ve been instilling wisdom in him along the way. You will (I hope) expect that he will come to you for advice for the bigger decisions in his life (I have two grown children who come to me for advice because I taught them not to buy into society’s lie where I am supposed to somehow become a non-entity in their lives…but that’s a story for another time).

But even when my grown children ask for advice, I don’t just make the decisions for them. I guide them. I ask them questions. I help them to figure out what their strengths and gifts are and how that might figure into the decisions they are making. In the same way, God expects us to come to him, to pray, to search his Word – but not to sit around because we are afraid to move out and do something.

I guess this is another aspect of being a Christian…but it is something I feel too many Christians have a problem with. And too many rely on other Christians (i.e. their “pastors”) to tell them how they should live their lives when God wants them to grow up and be adults. Just my two cents.

So true! And, I really hope that as he grows he learns to come to me. As it is when he asks me things now I try to work through the process of decision making with him. Primarily seeking God’s wisdom. I have learned that unless it is dangerous he needs to make decisions himself based on what God desires for him and how to differentiate his desires from God’s. Thank you for your wisdom.